>> rick: enjoyed from a desk or the couch. >> the couch. >> the desk or the couch. >> wherever you like, as long as you got internet. >> that's it for this "special report," fair, balanced and unafraid from the desk with the couch. >> shepard: this is the fox report. avoiding the fiscal cliff. now the president and house republicans plan to hit the trail in search for support for their competing plans. plus, the u.s. ambassador, susan rice, meets with some of her toughest critics. and apparently they don't like what she has to say. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some we didn't get. more disturbed now than i was before. >> shepard: republican senators criticizing ambassador rice for her initial comments on the libya consulate attack. >> ambassador rice has no

responsibility for collecting, analyzing and providing intelligence. >> shepard: tonight the ambassador responds. plus, the people of egypt trying to avoid trading one dictator for another. fighting back against a president who gave himself new powers. tonight a potential crisis point as the leader tries to put himself above the law. and how will the u.s. handle this? plus, the chances of winning are ridiculously low. but millions of us are still lining up for a shot at a record powerball jackpot. >> lucky, lucky, lotto win. >> shepard: tonight a look at the actual odds of winning it all. but first from fox this tuesday night, three republican senators now say they cannot support the u.n. ambassador, susan rice, for secretary of state. at least until they get more answers about her comments about the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi. president obama has not yet even

nominated her. but the white house says she is enormously qualified. senators john mccain, lindsey graham and kelly ayotte say they're even more troubled now after meeting with ambassador rice. the attack on libya on september 11 killed the u.s. ambassador, cries stevens and three other americans. five days later, ambassador rice went on the sunday talk shows and said u.s. officials believed it was a spontaneous reaction to protest over an anti-islam video. not a preplanned terrorist attack. first the controversy was over whether the white house made the change in the talking points. but that's past because intelligence officials say they gave ambassador rice those talking points. today senator graham called the information disconnected from reality. >> not only is the information bad and i'm more convinced than ever that it was bad, it was unjustified to give the scenario as presented by ambassador rice

and president obama three weeks before an election. >> shepard: rice said while we wish we had had perfect information, just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved. neither i nor anyone else in the administration intended to mislead the american people at any stage in this process. and the administration updated congress and the american people as our assessments evolved. democrats call it all pure politics. they won the election, but the opposition still fighting. so now showdown between the white house and house republicans over the president's choices for his cabinet. catherine herridge live in the dc news room. it sounded like they were ready to dial this back. but they've dialed it up instead. >> they have. within the last hour, this from the three senators disputing white house claims that statements about benghazi are a closed matter, that there are no unanswered questions. the senators saying this morning the acting c.i.a. director morell told them the al-qaeda references were dropped in the

c.i.a. talking points at the request of the f.b.i. because the bureau did not want to compromise an ongoing criminal investigation. but late this afternoon, c.i.a. officials called to correct the record, that it was actually them. rice met with senator joe lieberman who asked if she was coached by the add f before her talk hoe appearances. >> she said no, she was not given messaging points at all by the white house prior to her appearance on those sound morning shows. >> so the meeting today did not settle the matter. it certainly is not as far as these republicans are concerned. >> shepard: what's the response from the administration? >> in that written statement, rice who was joined by the acting c.i.a. director on the hill, said, quote, we explained the talking points provided by the intelligence community and the initial assessment upon which they were based were incorrect in the key respect there was no protest or demonstration in benghazi. also at the white house briefing, jay carney seemed to try and put the focus on the

investigation and not ambassador rice's comments. >> people are more interested in talking points for a sunday show several months ago than finding out what happened in benghazi, bringing to justice who was responsible, and insuring we take action that prevents something like that happening again. >> also late tonight, harry reid said the three republicans are politicizing the benghazi matter, calling it, quote, outrageous. >> shepard: catherine herridge in washington. the white house and congress have five weeks to keep us from going over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. that would mean automatic tax hikes and spending cuts at the same time and an economists say it could cause another resomething. the president met with congressional leaders from both parties, but harry reid says there has not been much progress since then. mike emmanuel is on capitol hill. republicans are asking for changes to social security and medicare. any common ground? >> shep, in public, it does not sound like it. top republican leaders say if you want to avoid the fiscal

cliff, you need to address the drivers of our debt. >> we know that the only way we can solve our long-term debt and deficit problem is to fix the unsustainable growth rates of our very popular entitlement programs. the president has from time to time indicated an openness to that. now is the time to actually do it. >> 42 business groups sent a letter to leaders of congress asking them to do tax reform to lower tax rates and also address entitlement reforms. >> shepard: democrats say they want more revenue, more taxes here. what about entitlement changes? >> well, any time you start talking about tweaking these programs, there are groups in washington around the country that mobilize to try and stop cuts. the number two senate democrat, dick durbin, says he'd be open to look at entitlements, but not part of the fiscal cliff talks. here is the senate majority leader's view. >> at the meeting we had that i

mentioned with president and the four leaders, president obama said that social security is not part of what is what we're going to do in this. i agree with him. and there are things that i personally believe there are things that we can do with entitlements that don't hurt beneficiaries. >> but if you have each side starting to take things off the table, it makes you wonder if at some point if gets harder to make a deal. shep. >> shepard: mike emmanuel on capitol hill. the white house and president obama will be making their case to regular americans this week. republican leaders say he should be negotiating, not campaigning. he's not the only politician planning a fiscal cliff road trip. we'll go to the white house and the fox report coming up in a bit. first, hours ago, more than 200,000 people crowded into the central square in cairo to call for an end to the new egyptian leader's regime. it was an enormous show of strength from the opposition that spent days blasting egypt he is new president, morsi.

he upset just about everybody last week when he decided to give himself broad new powers that say his decisions don't need approval from any court. essentially he's above the law. really no different than a dictator. protests showed their across the country, some of them violent. street fighting this between demonstrators and police. president morsi tried to calm the criticism by promising to reserve his new powers for only the most important decisions. but that didn't appease the protesters. remember, just last week, the united states was publicly praising president morsi when he helped end the conflict between israel and gaza. the white house says president obama has not spoken to his egyptian counterpart since then and today the press secretary jay carney said basically the egyptians need to work this out themselves. there is no evidence that will happen any time soon. right now this enormously influential nation where people forced out of dictator last year again threatens to fall into

chaos and instability. that's good for nobody. steve harrigan with the news live in cairo. steve? >> it took 18 nights of street protests, almost two years ago to drive out hosni mubarak from power. now we're on night number five of protests again egypt's first democratically elected president and for the first time, the sound of the protests feel exactly the same as those that drove out his predecessor. even some of the chants are the same, leave, leave. those protesters came from a number of different political parties today totaling more than 200,000 people. they were chanting, they were violent at the edges of the protests, mainly the younger protesters battling with police, squirmishing on the edges with rocks and tear gas as well. as far as president morsi goes, his show of compromise by meeting with judges yesterday has largely been rejected by the protesters. instead, opposition leaders say there will be no compromise, no deal with the president until he

backs down completely and rescinds his decree. otherwise, they say they will stay out here on the streets. shepherd. >> shepard: steve harrigan live in cairo. for years, women have proudly served in the united states military. they've fought, died right alongside the guys. pentagon rules prehave not women from officially serving in certain combat roles. today a big move to change that. and the palestinian leader, yasser arafat, died under mysterious circumstances years ago. we've heard speculation all along that israel may have poisoned him. now scientists have opened his grave to try to figure out whether somebody did poison him. and as it turns out, it's probably too late. the details ahead on this tuesday fox report cool, you found it. wow. nice place. ye. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat-rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. id for postage online and arranged a free pickup.

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so call today or visit your local walgreens. ends december 7th. ♪♪ you can help othersnk along the way. ♪ ♪ a portion of every bottle that they sell goes to fight ♪ ♪ breast cancer and i think that's swell. ♪ ♪ the more you take, the more they'll pay, ♪ ♪ so make them write a big check today. ♪ ♪ and if you're feeling a little slow, ♪ ♪ then 5-hour energy will help you go. ♪ ♪ so buy a bottle of pink lemonade and ♪ ♪ you can help fight breast cancer today. ♪ >> shepard: lawsuits. four women service members with the help of the american civil liberties union, today sued the pentagon challenging the

military's ban on women serving in certain combat positions. since 1994, women have not formally been allowed to serve in ground combat units. those units are considered more dangerous because they're often in the line of fire for extended periods of time. it's worth noting that women have served on the front lines in iraq and afghanistan, but most often in support roles. in fact, women make up 14% of our 1.5 million active military personnel. this lawsuit claims the current combat policy prevents women from promotions and salary bonuses that are open to men in combat. israel is facing a setback at the united nations as france is announcing it plans to vote for palestinian statehood. the u.n. general assembly set to vote on this day after tomorrow on whether to recognize a palestinian state. france is the first major european country to announce it will support the resolution and analysts say the measure is likely to pass. israel and the united states said the only true path to statehood would involve a peace

agreement with israel. this week's vote will also happen against the backdrop of a fragile cease fire between the israelis and their forces and the militants from hamas. workers cracked open the grave today of the late palestinian leader yasser arafat. it's all part of an investigation into whether somebody poisoned him. assassinated him even. he died in 2004. what killed him is still officially a mystery. israel has denied poisoning him at all. but over the summer, a lab in switzerland detected traces of a radioactive material in stains on his clothing. the current palestinian leader authorized this investigation to determine once and for all what really killed yasser arafat. although getting actual answers could prove very difficult. david lee in our jerusalem news room early wednesday morning. >> getting an answer on how yasser arafat died with reasonable certainty is highly

unlikely, but possible. a team of experts this morning took samples of his remains to look for a radioactive substance those exhuming his body had to overcome cultural and religious objections. a tarp was placed around to keep akay onlookers. workers even had to hand in cell phones to prevent unauthorized photos. following the procedure, a brief ceremony to place with wreaths placed at his mossly yum. his widow called for it after scientists taking part found the chemical not only on his clothing, but toothbrush as well. when arafat became ill in october of 2004 after living two years in isolation at his compound, he was taken to france we died weeks later in a military hospital. the cause of death, stroke. now a team scientists from russia, switzerland and france will try and determine if the poisoning was the underlying cause of death. if ingested a quantity of the it

can am deadly. it destroys dna, the immune system and major organs. but detection, it's not that simple. the drug dekays quickly. losing its radioactive in 2 1/2 years. remember, arafat now has been dead for eight years. scientists anding his remains say it will take at least three months before they have any results and those results could be inconclusive. yasser arafat, he was controversial in life and he remains so now in death. shep. >> shepard: david lee miller in jerusalem. powerball fever has the winning jackpot topping half a billion dollars tonight. lottery officials say it's likely to get bigger. as for your chances of winning, well, we'll crunch those numbers next. plus, don't want to put your aging parents in a nursing home, right? so why not just let them live in the backyard? we'll have that for you just ahead ♪

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>> shepard: it's half a billion dollars now up for grabs in tomorrow night's powerball drawing. the second highest prize ever in lotto history. your chances of winning the whole thing are insanely low. according to the folks at powerball, you have a one in 175 million shot at taking home the jackpot. for perspective, experts say it's 175 times more likely that lightning will strike you within a year. 55,000 times more likely that space junk will hit somebody on earth. and doing the math shows there is a 269 times better chance you'll get dealt the highest hand in poker, a royal flush. of course, optimists point out you have zero chance of winning in you don't buy a ticket. two dollars. trace gallagher with more live in our west coast news. there is a chance that nobody will win tomorrow night.

>> very good chance considering that nobody has won this powerball jackpot in 16 straight tries, which is why the jackpot is now so massive. even at $500 million, the odds are still only 60% that anyone will pick all six winning numbers. now, the more tickets that are sold, the more likely it is that somebody will win. if you plan to play, you might want to consider this. listen. >> let the computer quick pick your numbers and you can spend another two dollars on those birthdays and anniversaries and ages. but i'm a firm believer in the computer delivering winning tickets. >> because you share your birthday with a whole bunch of other people and if you use your birthday for your lottery numbers, it's very likely that a lot of other people will have the very same numbers. >> nobody likes sharing. how fast are the tickets selling? >> new york state alone, they're selling at $250,000 per hour and

the closer get to the drawing, they say the sales are going to kick up a lot. take a look at this. 44 states have the powerball lotto, including the virgin islands and d.c the pot is so big that if you pick just five out of six, i mean, that's a lot. but if you pick five out of six, you win a million dollars. even if you pick just one red ball, you still double your money at 4 bucks and you can see there, your chances of doing that, one in 55. so not bad. and good luck. >> shepard: thank you. trace gallagher in los angeles. roller coast that are sits in the atlantic ocean after super storm sandy knocked it off a new jersey pier will not become a tourist attraction. that's from the mayor of the town there, seaside heights. last week he said that coaster in the water could probably remain partially submerged. now he says that was, quote, not the brightest comment. and that the town and the pier's owner also tear it down. demolition crews removed the damaged boardwalk.

construction on a new one set to start in january. it could open, they tell us, as soon as the beginning of summer, memorial day. president obama and house republicans meeting with some of the americans who could pay the price if we go over the fiscal cliff. tonight what the stand-off is already doing to our 401(k)s. plus got milk? yeah, that's milk, the protesters are spraying at police. milk. we'll tell what you that's all about as we approach the bottom of the hour and the top of the news. it's fox report live axiron, the only underarm treatment for low t, can restore testosterone levels back to normal in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur.

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>> shepard: millions of americans taking care of their aging parents may have a new alternative to nursing homes. the virginia company, med cottage is selling what they call high-tech portable dwellings that can go up in the backyard. we're told the so-called granny pod is set for a extended medical care with a small living and eating area, a handicapped accessible bathroom and a remote monitoring system. electricity and water could be directly to the main home. the company describes it as a portable hospital room. according to the u.s. census bureau, the united states elderly population will more than double between now and 2050. and then as many as one in five americans could be a senior citizen. 100 years ago, it was one in 25. if you put them in the cage in the backyard, they will haunt you and all of your offspring.

pepper spray versus milk. as protesters set fire and battle riot police. our top story as we go around the world in 80 seconds. belgium. dairy farms from several european union. they came on tractors and shot milk from hoses at parliament and cops. the farmers want the e.u. to set higher milk prices. it often sells below production costs due to lower demand and more competition. e.u. ministers meet tomorrow to discuss price setting policies. panama. at least three people reportedly died after heavy rain triggered severe flooding west of panama city. the high water destroyed more than 800 homes and collapsed a major highway. panama president's promises aid to the area. china. crews rescued a man buried in mud in the southern province. he reportedly fell into a hole he dug in his banana field.

days of torrential rape made the mud so heavy, firefighters needed an excavator to free him. sweden. thousands of fans with shovels and construction tools packed into a historic soccer stadium in stockholm. officials gave folks permission to take what they can they could from the soon to be demolished stadium which hosted the 1952 world cup finals. they walked away with seats and that's a wrap on this fox trip around the world in 80 seconds. i'm shepard smith. this is the fox report. it's the bottom of the hour. time for the top of the news and five weeks from today, pretty much everybody's taxes go up unless president obama and congress can keep us from going over that ever talked about fiscal cliff. now the white house says president obama is taking his case to the people.

meeting with small business leaders. today middle class families, tomorrow in hitting the road for a campaign style rally on friday. gop leaders say he should stay in dc and try to work out a deal. house republicans say they're also planning to get out of washington and hold events from small businesses back home. james rosen live at the white house tonight. do we know whether the talks have broken down? >> the white house says no, shep, that the work continues between key staff aides on both sides. but there is for this week as yet no follow-up session planned for negotiations like the one that the president held in the roosevelt room earlier this month with all four leaders from the house and senate. democrats more thanked from that session back on november 16 talking about another to be held the week after thanksgiving. >> the people he needs to be talking to are members of his own party so he can convince them of the need to act. we're not going to solve this problem by creating villains and drumming up outrage.

>> the question of whether or not taxes go up on 98% of american taxpayers is very important to ordinary americans. it is not just a matter for discussion between the president and the senate minority leader or other congressional leaders. >> of the small business leaders who met with president obama today appear not toto have given to any recent campaigns about the remaining three that had given to recent campaigns, shep, gave all to democratic causes. >> shepard: so if the talks are still alive, who is holding the talks? >> the white house announced a line - up of heavy hitters from its economic team who are going to be meeting with congressional leaders and their aides. the treasury secretary, geithner, was described as the lead negotiator. he's being joined by chief of staff jack liu, seen by many as a possible successor to geithner. gene sperling, now head of the national economic counsel and rob neighbors, the white house

congressional liaison. when asked if secretary geithner had shown up at the office of house speaker john boehner today to begin negotiating, jay carney said he could not account for secretary geithner's precise whereabouts. shep. >> shepard: james rosen live at the white house. thanks. worries about the so-called fiscal cliff are not doing much good for our 401(k)s. stocks were down today. the dow lost almost 90. nasdaq fell 9. s & p 500 down 7. analysts say investors are concerned about whether these lawmakers will get together and reach a deal. those worries overshadowed a couple of positive developments. gerri willis is here. we got a report showing that americans are, i don't know, feeling better and so much of this is about how we feel about the economy. >> oh, yeah. that's right. investors may not like it, but consumers love it. their confidence, the highest level in many, many months. still below 90, which is really the point at which you see a really strong and robust economy. but the fact that consumer confidence has been doing so much better, it's very

important. now, here is possibly a source of their optimism. 20% of consumers expect more jobs in the next six months and that would be a cause for much optimism. >> shepard: yes, it would. the fears about europe's debt crisis clearly eased a bit 'cause there is another deal to provide aid to greece. >> more money for greece, $57 billion. it took three weeks to come to this conclusion for european and global leaders to say hey, we'll give you the money. it will come in four installments and if they didn't get this, they would be in bankruptcy. as you know, that would be bad for the entire e.u. that country, greece, has an unemployment rate of 25%. 25. >> shepard: big number. >> it's a very big number. >> shepard: thank you. >> thank you. >> shepard: we knew this year's cyber monday would likely set a record, but now we know by just how much. we know how much money people dropped on-line. according to the estimates, folks spent some $2 billion yesterday. it's the largest on-line spending day ever in the history

of on-line spending. with sales more than 30% higher than the same day last year. many of the big retailers report strong to record setting days. one retiring senators kay bailey hutchison of texas and jon kile of arizona today introduced the gop's answer to the president's dream act, they call it a starting point for a conversation about immigration. of course, the president has said immigration reform will likely be a top priority in early in his second term. political analysts say the republican proposal is largely symbolic and has zero chance of passing during the lame duck session of congress. a federal court laying out exactly what tobacco companies

will have to say when they admit they lied to us. they deceived the public about the dangers of smoking. a judge several years ago found that companies violated u.s. racketeering laws and ordered them to publish ads with corrective statements, unquote. today the court specified what those corrective statements must include and they are the admission that cigarette companies intentionally design cigarettes with enough nicotine to create and sustain addiction. what a shocker. former senate majority leader and one-time presidential nominee bob dole is in the hospital tonight for what is to us an undisclosed medical condition. that's according to the senate majority leader harry reid who said senator dole is sick and that he's not there for a checkup. and assistant to bob dole said the former senator will leave the hospital tomorrow after a routine procedure. dole is 89 years old now. he's been hospitalized a number of times over the years. suffered a serious injury to his arm while serving in world war ii.

today the arizona senator john mccain read a letter to lawmakers in which dole urged passage of new legislation to help people with disabilities. more on senator dole's condition as we get it. yet another twist in the investigation into the botched gun sting known forever as fast and furious. attorneys for the department of justice, as well as house republicans, today in front of a judge with a new plan to try to get to the bottom of the whole thing. the north korean dictator, look at him. agree with the new report, all together now, he is the sexiest man alive. how did they arrive at that? they're going to like this one. don't you think?

>> shepard: lawyers say they're trying to help the fast and

furious gun sting. it was meant to follow guns from the united states to mexican drug cartels. the feds didn't track some of those weapons and bandits left two of them at the scene of a shootout with a border patrol agent died if 2010. the republican controlled house has been demanding records that could, they say, show how the justice department responded to a congressional investigation of fast and furious. president obama used executive privilege to keep those records private and today lawyers for both house and justice department said they're going to try to work out some of the issues themselves without the court. the army private charged with the biggest security breach in american history is fighting to avoid a trial. he's private bradley manning. brad ass 87 on-line. he's accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the wikileaks web site. at a pretrial hearing that happened today, the lawyers argued the military has already illegally punished their client, locking him up in a install cell

for at least 23 hours a day, making him sleep naked for several nights. when he went even convicted of anything. military officials say they didn't mistreat him, claiming he was a maximum security detainee who posed a risk to others and himself. jonathan hunt is with us. lawyers are arguing that he didn't leak these documents? >> no, they're not arguing that he did not leak the documents. in fact, his lawyers say he will plead guilty to leaking those documents if the charges are reduced. so far the government isn't having any part of that deal. so at today's pretrial hearing, his lawyers argued that essentially all the charges should be thrown out because he's been punished enough, because of the harsh conditions of his confinement at quantico, virginia. the marine brig there. lawyers for the government say that is simply not the case, that he was treated exactly as he should have been treated, as

a high risk detainee and that's why they want through -- put him through the conditions that he was under there. at the moment, this is a pretrial hearing. we may well hear from bradley manning himself. >> shepard: we're hearing from the founder of the web site, julian assange, who is seeking asylum, speaking today. >> yes. still waiting at the moment in the ecuadorian embassy in london. but today he spoke via video link to some officials and journalists in brussels, belgium, and what he was complaining about today was what he called right wing politicians putting pressure on the companies not to process donations or make donations to wikileaks. he says that is simply unfair and european laws have to be changed. listen. >> it's not only wrong for wikileaks, it sets an extremely bad precedent for other european organizations and all media organization world wide that monopolies can simply exercise

financial death penalties over organization and companyies as a result of political controversy. >> in the meantime, british cops wait outside the embassy of ecuador. for the moment he steps out so they can rearrest him. >> shepard: with baited breath we wait. thanks so much. palestinian leaders eraising all doubt about iran's role with their conflict with israel. they put up billboards in gaza, thanking iran for its help during the eight days of fighting that ended last week in the cease fire. militant leader says the iranian president himself called him to offer congratulations. palestinians withledges iran military and financial support in a conflict that many analysts say could be a preview of a conflict between israel and iran. conner powell streaming live from gaza with a look how folks are doing. >> shep, nearly one week to the

cease fire agreement and one thing is clear, few people here in gaza or across the border think it will last particularly long. the fighting may have temporarily stopped in gaza, but for the men of islamic jihad, the training and preparing for the next fight hasn't. >> to prepare more and to rearm for the next fight with israeli occupation. >> these men say they want israel to launch a ground invasion, believing they hold the advantage after years of preparation. >> these fighters say there are tunnels and bunkers all over gaza and they will continue to use them if the israelis try a ground invasion. >> during the course of the eight days of fighting, jihad fired hundreds of rockets into israel and the israeli military clearly knows these fields aren't just for growing fruit. there are visible signs of a recent missile strike, just feet from this bunker. as the clean-up in gaza begins, all sides appear are regrouping

and rearming. not rethinking the future of the conflict. talk of a long-term peace agreement with palestinians living side by side with israelis is quickly dismissed by these islam insist jihad fighters. >> we are on high alert all the time. waiting for any fight with the occupation forces. >> both israel and hamas have sent representatives to egypt to continue negotiations, but with israeli elections due in just about two months or so, it's unlikely much will be accomplished. >> shepard: conner powell live in gaza. china, the chinese own more than a trillion dollars in u.s. debt. in other words, we owe them a trillion bucks. the chinese invested in our bonds and now it seems they're interested in invest not guilty our neighborhoods. ahead, fox report on china's big move into the u.s. housing market. first, sad news from the world of sports, marvin miller, a man

called one of the most influential people in baseball history died. you may not recognize the name because he never took the field as a pro ball player. but as the head of the major league baseball players association, miller ushered in the era of free agency and single handedly changed the game. he was born in the bronks, started his career as a labor economist. took the job as head of the players union back in '66 and over the years he revolutionized collective bargaining in sports. he certainly ruffled feathers along the way, particularly among baseball owners. but any player earning a big paycheck today has one man to thank, marvin miller, dead of liver cancer. he was 95. ory of relativity, the next... stop, stop, stop! my car! not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacemen from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one

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>> shepard: so you're trying to sell your house, are you? good news, there is a new report out that shows home prices went

up this summer. s & p case schiller index tracks them in 20 u.s. cities and according to the latest numbers prices jumped. that's compared to the same quarter last year. analysts say it's another sign that the housing market is bouncing back and could indeed help boost our economy. foreign buyers are helping drive up the home prices. analysts say folks from places including china are spending billions of dollars on u.s. real estate each year. they say those investors are snatching up everything from foreclosed homes to high end luxury properties. william lajeunesse live in los angeles. william? >> foreign investors smell a bargain here. the chinese like california, latin americans, florida, mexican buyers prefer texas. americans bought $82 billion in u.s. homes last year. 7 billion from the chinese who now rank number two just behind canadians in real estate investments. california to new york, the

chinese are paying cash for high end multi million dollar homes with special kitchens, in-law suites and koi ponds. >> it's been fantastic for the u.s. housing market because we have not suffered as other communities have. in fact, our property values increased. >> 40% of the chinese buy homes as an investment. sometimes two or three at a time in foreclosure states like nevada and arizona. they're not your typical chinese who earn less than $5,000 a year. they're businessmen and communist party leaders. some looking for a high return. others a part-time residence and a stable future for their family. >> it's a sign of their status, you know. you can show off your friends or family that i can buy something overseas. but everybody can -- not everybody can do it. >> the chinese also get more bang for their buck here. $2 million in shanghai will get

awe two bedroom condo. in tucson, you get four houses and more than a few acres. >> shepard: william lajeunesse in los angeles. communist newspaper overseas is honoring the north korean leader after an american publication named him the sexist man alive. of course, that american publication is the onion. the satirecal into am published an article off and oning over what it calls kim jong-un's handsome face and calling him a hunk who knows how to cut across and let his hair down. the onion named as previous honorees, siberian president -- syrian president, and the convicted swindler, bernie madoff. china's communist paper fell for the report and ran a 55 page photo spread in honor of the leader.

an iranian newspaper picked up a story similarly. this time the onion linked to the chinese paper, calling it a proud communist subsidiary of the onion incorporated. and congratulating it on its comrades on exemplary reporting the teenage actor from the show "two and a half men" found religion. now says the sitcom that made him a millionaire is filth. filth, i tell you! hear what the show's form star, charlie sheen, is saying about the controversy. winning. [ clock ticking ] [ male announcer ] there's a better way... v8 v-fusion. vegetable nutrition they need, fruit taste they love. could've had a v8. or...try kids boxes! well, having a ton of locations doesn't hurt. and a santa to boot! [ chuckles ] right, baby. oh, sir. that is a customer.

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>> charlie sheen, the former "two and a half men" star reportedly says his show was cursed. according to people magazine, charlie sheen made the comment after the show's teenage star appeared in an on-line video from a christian organization and called the show filth.

angus t. jones plays jake on the cbs sitcom. he's one much hallelujah's highest paid teenage actors pulling in $350,000 per episode. you'll recall cbs fired that charlie sheen last year after he bashed the show's creator and claimed he had tiger blood. before we go, our top five things of the day. five, half billion dollars powerball jackpot up for grabs. the second biggest lottery prize in american history. number 4, lawmakers seeking an investigation into whether oil refineries caused a jump in gas prices earlier this year when the cost of crude was actually declining. number 3, demolition began in the aftermath of the indianapolis house explosion that killed two people as the arson investigation into the blast continues. number two, protesters in egypt demanding their president cancel the sweeping new powers he granted himself last week. number one, the u.n. ambassador susan rice met with three republican senators and said there was no intention to

mislead anybody about the deadly attack in libya. but those lawmakers say they are more troubled now than ever. that's the fox report's top five. on this day in 1978, gun fire echoed through san francisco's city hall. a disgruntled former member of the board of supervisors climbed through a window to avoid a metal detector. then he walked into the mayor's office of the mayor, pulled out a pistol and killed him. the gunman reloaded and headed into the supervisor's chambers where he killed board member harvey milk. one of the first openly gay elected officials in the united states. the assassin turned himself in and confessed. but a jury convicted him only of involuntary manslaughter. gay rights supporters rioted when they learned of the eight-year prison sentence. and a city lost two leaders 34 years ago